I was tempted to watch this one since I was such a fan of the Going Postal Mini-Series (despite never reading/watching any Diskworld media before that) but I had no idea what it was about and didn’t really bother to look for a copy. Although, what you described and showed definitely looks interesting. I’m going to have to locate a copy to watch now. I also need to start reading the books since I’ve been meaning to for a long time anyway.

The books are great. They are easy to read even if you’re not into books in general, but also have a great deal of nuances and countless little nods and references that can make going through them again an enjoyable experience in itself.

I recommend that you start from Mort and proceed from there chronologically; the books before that are more like straight-up fantasy parodies with very little depth or substance in themselves, but starting from Mort they develop into this great mixture of satire and drama that makes them quite unique in the fantasy genre.

Eh, I actually don’t like the newer books – I know that I sound like a conservative old fart, but I think they REALLY went downhill on anything involving the Goblin race (or the Retcon race, as I call them). Snuff was awful with an overpowered, steam-roller Vimes, whereas Raising Steam did it again with trains. The villains especially went downhill – in both Unseen Academicals and Snuff, the villain is talked up a lot about how evil they are, but don’t actually do much. The villains of Steam are barely worth mentioning, being obvious clones of religious fanatics with nothing unique or interesting about them. And the goblins themselves? Kind of okay, since they have a culture and all, but their adeptness at mechanics in Steam made them feel way too much like dwarfs v.2.

Wow, are we on the same page or what? I just finished reading the book for Christmas. AND I just watched this miniseries. Well… I guess we’re not 100% on the same page as I didn’t have the issues with pacing you had.
I’m a pretty big Terry Pratchett fan so I gushed over this review. I’ve seen all the miniseries based on his books and they were enjoyable… but not as much as the books. The problem is that Terry Pratchett really writes his humor for the page. Going Postal – for example – is one of my favorite Terry Pratchett books because of how funny it is, but I found the movie okay.

Why do characters in the miniseries keep mispronouncing Teatime’s name when they haven’t seen it spelled out? It sounds more like tee-ah-tor-may when he says it. That sounds nothing like what they think it does.

Film and TV have spent decades trying to persuade us of that old saw told to little girls – He’s only teasing you because he likes you – related to that other old saw told to little boys – Bullies are cowards inside and all you have to do is stand up to them – Both of which are utter rubbish!
This has culminated in today’s media as the idea that any two people of the opposite sex who cannot stand each other will inevitably end up together!
Joss Whedon’s Buffy and Angel {and to a lesser extent Firefly/Serenity} are majorly inflicted with this disease!

I just want to know why you spent so much of this review talking about this sickness rather than about the actual adaptation!
Like all the Pratchett adaptations…From the Wyrd Sisters and Soul Music cartoons…Through the Johnny and the Bomb/Johnny and the Dead childrens TV serials…Up to Sky’s Going Postal and Colour of Magic/Light Fantastic two parters. The Hogfather suffers from the fact that Pratchett’s humour heavily entails out of character asides, descriptions and footnotes!

The Colour of Magic was by far the worst adaptation as it tore the books to shreds, Going Postal added an atrocious made for TV ending.
The Hogfather is actually the best adaptation of a Pratchett novel yet – Though it too has issues.

As for reading order – Most of the Discworld novels can be partitioned into subsets:

Rincewind

Colour of Magic
The Light Fantastic
Sourcery
Eric
Interesting Times
The Last Continent
The Last Hero
Unseen Academicals

The Truth {Moist plays no part in this novel but it sets up the new Ankh Morpork scenario}
Going Postal
Making Money
Raising Steam

The Rest {Can be read in any order}

Pyramids
Moving Pictures {can be fitted in after Eric if following the Unseen University storyline rather than just Rincewind}
Small Gods {may be best read prior to Carpe Jugulum but not necessary}.
The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents

I had never read any of the books and have a bit more patience for long movies so I liked the beginning. For me, I think it helped to have the slower pace at the beginning and I was not bored looking at my watch at any time. Every time a new character was introduced I felt I had time to get to know them or at least what was important to know at the time. Over all, the movie was long but I was not bored and I enjoyed it.

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